Puducherry Assembly passes GST Bill

Puducherry, May 17: The Puducherry Assembly today
unanimously passed the Puducherry Goods and Services Tax Bill,
2017 here.
The bill was tabled in the assembly by Chief Minister
V Narayanasamy.
MLAs of the ruling and opposition blocks participated
in the debate after the bill was tabled and expressed their
views on various aspects of the GST system.
They appealed to the Chief Minister to ensure that
there was no setback to the revenue flow to the territorial
government in the wake of implementation of the GST Act.
Narayanasamy said, Puducherry was part of the GST
council and Union Territory had been given the status of a
state.
He noted that the new tax regime would prevent tax
evasion.
The Puducherry government was keen that there should
be no disadvantageous impact on Puducherry by the
implementation of the GST, he said adding already 80 percent
of the traders had expressed willingness to migrate to the GST
pattern in the Union Territory.
After the Chief Minister presented his reply
highlighting the features of the GST the Bill tabled by him
was adopted unanimously.
A help desk had been set up in the Commercial Taxes
Department to address the woes of the traders and others
covered under the GST.
On the two-day meeting of the GST Council to commence
under the chairmanship of Union Finance Minister tomorrow in
Delhi, Narayanasamy said, "It is a crucial meeting as it would
decide which commodity will fall in which tax bracket."
The Parliament had on April 6 passed four legislations
to pave the way for nationwide roll-out of GST from July 1.
PTI